Ridley College, briefly also known as Ridley Melbourne, is a Christian

theological college A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and Christian theology, theology, generally to prepare them for ordinatio ...

in the parklands of central

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in the

Australian state The states and territories are the national subdivisions and second level of government of Australia. The states are partially sovereignty, sovereign, administrative divisions that are autonomous administrative division, self-governing polity, ...

of Victoria. Established in 1910, it has an

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

foundation and outlook and is affiliated with the Australian College of Theology and the

Anglican Church of Australia The Anglican Church of Australia, originally known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. In 2016, responding to a peer-reviewed study ...

. The college offers on-campus and online learning and provides training for various Christian ministries in a range of contexts.

History

Named after a 16th-century

English Reformation The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops Oath_of_Supremacy, over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church ...

martyr, Nicholas Ridley, Ridley College was established on 1 March 1910 to provide residential theological training. Its founders were

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

clergy and laypeople from throughout Victoria."History"
ridley.edu.au. Retrieved 7 March 2009. Ridley College's principals have included the prominent New Testament scholar

Leon Morris Leon Lamb Morris (15 March 1914 – 24 July 2006) was an Australian New Testament scholar and theologian. Born in Lithgow, New South Wales, Morris was ordained to the Anglican ministry in 1938. He earned Bachelor of Divinity (with first class ...

(1914–2006; principal 1964–1979), known for his studies of the

atonement Atonement, atoning, or making amends is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some othe ...

. For much of its history, a main feature of Ridley College was its residential college, with students accommodated mainly in the Aiken and Baker buildings. Like other residential colleges in the area, it provided its students with a range of academic, social and religious programs. From 1965 to 2005, Ridley was an affiliated residential college of the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

and, in 1972, it became the first of the university's colleges open to both men and women. In 2005, the residential college was closed due to rising costs. The following year, it was reopened to provide accommodation specifically for international students from the surrounding universities, the University of Melbourne,

RMIT University The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (abbreviated as RMIT University) is a public research university located in the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia., section 4(b) Established in 1887 by Francis Ormond, it is the seventh-o ...

and

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

. The residential college was again closed at the end of 2007. Ridley College retains a small residential theological community in the renamed Baker building (formerly Bearham). The buildings were substantially upgraded in 2019.

Principals

The principals of Ridley College have been:

Education and training

Ridley College aims to provide Christian theological formation with a balance across three domains: ministry practice, Christian thought (theology and ethics) and biblical studies (including Greek and Hebrew languages). While the college teaches from an evangelical theological perspective, it is open to Christians of all backgrounds. Its stated aims are to equip its students for Christian ministries in a variety of settings, including a range of church denominations and

cross-cultural Cross-cultural may refer to: *cross-cultural studies, a comparative tendency in various fields of cultural analysis *cross-cultural communication, a field of study that looks at how people from differing culture, cultural backgrounds communicate * ...

contexts. The college actively supports parachurch work as well as

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

and local church roles."FAQs"
ridley.edu.au. Retrieved 8 March 2009. Along with Trinity College Theological School, Ridley also trains ordinands for ministry in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne and other Anglican

dioceses In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

. Ridley's academic resources include its library and bookshop. The Leon Morris Library has a collection of 46,000 volumes and 150 journal subscriptions and contains significant resources on biblical studies. The Ridley College is a government-recognised tertiary institution and a CRICOS provider, offering education to international students. This means that domestic students have access to government support for tuition fees. The college offers undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate programs and courses from the Australian College of Theology, the education provider for 20 Christian colleges in Australia. Its programs include the

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and ...

, the Graduate Diploma of Divinity and the Bachelor of Theology. There have been a number of developments in recent years at the college. In 2008, Ridley College completed a new vision for development and began restructuring its education around six learning communities. These include the college's distance learning program, eRidley, which was established in 2007. eRidley – renamed Ridley Online in 2014 – is particularly designed to provide training for Australians in remote areas, in collaboration with the Bush Church Aid Society. In June 2008, Ridley College sold the southern half of its property to residential developers, including the Aickin, Baker, Cumnock and Larcombe buildings and the octagonal chapel designed by James Stahle. The Bearham building was subsequently renamed Baker to preserve naming according to the college's principals. In May 2009, Ridley announced the establishment of a Jonathan Edwards Centre affiliated with the Jonathan Edwards Center at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. Kenneth Minkema, executive director of the Jonathan Edwards Center, commented, "The establishment of the Jonathan Edwards Center–Australia at Ridley is a significant expansion of Edwards scholarship and will serve widely both academia and the church."

Campus and community

Ridley College is located in Parkville, a residential parkland suburb roughly three kilometres from the centre of

. The campus is situated between Royal Park to the west and Princes Park to the east. The campus buildings surround two main courtyards and are used as follows: *Adam — lecture room *Babbage — lecture room *Baker — faculty offices; residential theological apartments *College lounge — recreational student space *Dining room — with adjacent kitchen and Betteridge lecture room *Leon Morris Library — with adjacent lecture and meeting rooms *Stanway — classroom *Wade — reception, staff offices The college is used by St Jude's Church, Carlton, for two of its Sunday services.

Notable faculty

* Michael Bird – deputy principal, academic * John Dickson – distinguished fellow and senior lecturer in public Christianity * Peter Corney – former lecturer and researcher * Brian Rosner – former principal

Photo gallery

Image:Ridleymelbourne-entrance.JPG, Main entrance Image:Ridleymelbourne-courtyard2.JPG, Baker building Image:Ridleymelbourne-dining.JPG, Dining room Image:Ridleymelbourne-maincourtyard.JPG, Main quadrangle, facing Stanway (left) and dining room (right) Image:Ridleymelbourne-stanwaya.JPG, Stanway A classroom Image:Ridleymelbourne-library1.JPG, Leon Morris Library Image:Ridleymelbourne-library2.JPG, Leon Morris Library loft Image:Ridleymelbourne-lounge.JPG, Lounge, student recreation block, Baker

References

External links

Ridley CollegeLeon Morris LibraryJonathan Edwards Centre
{{Authority control Australian College of Theology Anglican seminaries and theological colleges Educational institutions established in 1910 Anglican Church of Australia Ecclesiastical Province of Victoria Education in Victoria (state) Universities in Melbourne 1910 establishments in Australia Alumni of Ridley College, Melbourne